Shaped by the land, torn apart by intolerance

Ron Rash believes that “almost all of the great books are regional books.” What, he asks, “could be more regional than James Joyce’s Ulysses,” which unfolds during a 24-hour ramble through Dublin, Ireland, on June 16, 1904?So Rash bristles—in a modest, gentlemanly sort of way—when people use the word ...